sarah984's reviews
628 reviews

Encounters on the Passage: Inuit Meet the Explorers by Dorothy Harley Eber

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adventurous informative medium-paced

4.0

Interesting perspective on arctic exploration from the Inuit point of view. I like that the author always names both the storyteller and the translator. Unfortunately the kindle edition had a lot of formatting issues and most of the images were removed.
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Blackouts by Justin Torres

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challenging dark reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This was a really interesting book, a sort of auto-fiction/historical fiction combination about telling stories and being interpreted and pathologized. I liked it a lot.
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Girly Drinks: A World History of Women and Alcohol by Mallory O'Meara

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informative lighthearted fast-paced

2.5

I thought this was an interesting concept, but it wound up being way too pop-history for me. Each chapter features a story about a specific woman (with varying levels of connection to alcohol culture, there were a couple extremely tenuous links that felt like "diversity hires" unfortunately) interspersed with buzzfeed listicle style writing about other things happening globally during that time period. The footnotes are not citations (there's a bibliography at the back, but specific facts aren't cited directly) they're just more unfunny "snark" and some of the chapters (especially the more modern years) feel uncomfortably preachy. Also acting like Hammurabi invented misogyny whole cloth is extremely silly.

The different types of alcohol and how they're made were interesting though.
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Ito Junji's Cat Diary by Junji Ito

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funny lighthearted fast-paced

4.0

Charming vignettes in the life of a cat owner, drawn in Junji Ito's trademark horror style. Very cute and relatable.
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Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor

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adventurous emotional slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This was an interesting portrait of a tumultuous time, but the pov character (and most of the other characters honestly) was almost unbearable to read about, and the ending felt like it kind of petered out. 
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Y/N by Esther Yi

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challenging slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

There were some interesting points and turns of phrase but overall I found the characters' views on almost everything kind of weird and annoying. Very off putting descriptions.
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The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley

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adventurous dark slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

As soon as it was revealed that one of the pov characters in this book has amnesia it had a long road ahead to appeal to me, and it never really got there. The reason for the amnesia seems silly once it's revealed (and the mechanism of what's causing the cycles is super unclear anyway so why do all that), the romances are superficial, and most of the characters pretty much only have one trait. It's unclear why any of them like each other enough to justify what's happening in the plot. There's a huge section in the middle devoted to a fantasy world walking around quest. Most characters sound the same and speak in a way that feels designed to be quoted. I think the basic concept could have been something cool but also reading this felt like a waste of my time.
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Star-Crossed by Barbara Dee

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funny hopeful fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This is a sweet middle grade book about a girl finding the courage to be herself. I liked that the romance wasn't too over the top, more about self-discovery. The voice was charming (the constant referencing of the fateful Darth Vader costume was so funny to me) and while not exactly a retelling, the parallels to Romeo and Juliet help to make the play more relatable to a younger audience. 
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Bad Kids by Zijin Chen

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dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This was a pretty wild thriller about three kids who try to blackmail a killer after witnessing a murder. Despite the situation the kids mostly felt believable, and I had a lot of fun with it overall. A few of the twists and turns felt a bit silly but it all came together by the end.
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Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout by Laura Jane Grace, Dan Ozzi

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informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

This was an interesting book about the founding and evolution of Against Me! set against the backdrop of Laura Jane Grace's journals from those times. Very honest examination of things she's (understandably) not talked about much publicly in the past - illustrates pretty clearly that mindset of how your whole life will be fixed if you fix just one thing and then it turns out that you have multiple problems. Complaining about punks heckling her shows got a bit old though.
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